Gemstones
by Lkay09
Summary: J/L two-shot, an encounter a year and a half after they have left Hogwarts. R&R!
1. Part One

**So here's another one-shot I decided to upload in my brief chance. L/J, after they've graduated.  
**

* * *

"Lily?" Came the voice from behind her. She turned, and came face to face with James Potter sitting outside a little café in London.

"Potter," she replied curtly. "What are you doing here?"

His smile didn't falter as he replied, "Just grabbing lunch. Want to join me?"

"Not particularly."

"Lily – please? I won't keep you long, I promise. I just want to catch up with you a bit. Is that a crime?"

Against her better judgment, Lily sat down across from him.

"So, Potter-"

"Lily," he interrupted. "We've been out of school for a year and a half now. Could you call me James?"

She rolled her eyes before continuing, "So, _James_…how've you been?"

"Pretty well," he replied, munching on a cracker and trying not to look in her emerald eyes. It didn't matter how long they had gone without seeing each other – he still loved her, but he had long since accepted that she wouldn't love him back. Especially now with a diamond and ruby ring glinting on her finger. "I'm in the Auror program at the Ministry, and I live with the other Marauders. No significant other to speak of. How about you?"

"Well," she began slowly, unsure of whether or not to bring up her engagement. The fact that James had liked her in school was something that she had not been able to forget – it nagged her sometimes, and made her feel guilty about the way she had treated him. "I'm a Healer now, and I live with my fiancé Andrew."

"Oh yeah," he said, although the enthusiasm had all but disappeared from his voice. "I heard about your engagement. Congratulations."

"Thanks."

They became silent until the waitress came over to take their orders. Afterwards, Lily broke the ice by asking how the other Marauders were. James answered that they were fine, and the two of them proceeded to reminisce all through their meal. They had more memories in common than they had previously thought.

"And…remember when…you…you made that…portrait sing opera?" Lily gasped through her laughter. James nodded, wiping tears of mirth from his own eyes.

They had long since finished their meals, and the sun was beginning to set, when James finally stood and offered to walk Lily home. She agreed, feeling as though they had reached a new level of understanding.

"Tell me about your fiancé," he said suddenly. Lily looked up at him in surprise.

"Are – are you sure?" she replied hesitantly. His jaw tensed, and he was silent for a moment.

"Look," he said tightly, "I know I harassed you a lot in school, and embarrassed you, and I really am sorry for that. And I know you doubted it, but I really do love you." He stopped walking and turned to face her. She didn't miss the present tense in his sentence, but decided to let it slide. "All I wanted in school, and all I want now, is for you to be happy. This guy makes you happy, doesn't he? Then I want to know about him," he finished without letting her answer.

He started walking again, and Lily, lost in her thoughts, had to hurry to keep up.

"So, tell me about him." James said shortly.

"Well…we met eight months ago, and we work together at St Mungo's. He works in Spell Damage, and I work in the ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic. We just sort of bumped into each other, and the rest is history."

James wished he hadn't asked. As she talked about him, she got this almost-dreamy tone to her voice that he had always wanted to hear her use…about him. Every word was like a little sliver of glass slicing into his heart. Trying to ignore that feeling, James instead focused on her words.

"Wait…you said the two of you have only known each other eight months?" Lily nodded, looking up at him as they continued walking. They were nearing her neighborhood now, and had slowed their pace. "That explains it," he muttered, almost to himself. Lily halted, and he turned to look at her.

"Explains _what_?" she demanded, her emeralds narrowed. James sighed – he hadn't wanted to piss her off. Just once, he wanted to have an encounter with her that didn't end with her storming off and him heartbroken. Although, anytime she walked away from him he was heartbroken.

"Your ring," he said simply, and her eyes lost their angry look, instead becoming confused.

"What about my ring?" Her hands went to her hips, and he almost smiled at the familiar gesture. Instead, he thought it would be best to explain, and then leave before she could.

"It's ruby and diamond. It's wrong."

Lily's hands dropped from her hips in shock, and James reached forward and picked up her left hand, rubbing him thumb over her ring. Both of them tried to ignore the tingles that occurred where their skin made contact.

"Everyone thinks that you should have ruby, to match your hair, or emerald to match your beautiful eyes. Or perhaps just a classic diamond.

"But your favorite gem is sapphire, always has been. Your engagement ring should be a square sapphire, on a silver band, with smaller diamonds on either side. And a silver wedding band, with both diamonds and sapphires." His thumb had moved to the top of her hand and was now rubbing small circles. James was relishing the fact that she hadn't yet yelled at him, or slapped him, or shoved him away.

Lily tried to hide her shock that he knew her favorite gemstone, and had described the set of rings she had always wanted. She hadn't told anybody, because at Hogwarts, it would have seemed really insane of her - Lily Evans, Head Girl, top student – to sit around daydreaming about her engagement ring or wedding when no-one other than James Potter had ever shown interest in her.

"Lily," he murmured softly. She pulled out of her thoughts, and her eyes widened to see that he had moved closer, and was staring at her with such an intense longing it made her knees tremble. His hazel eyes searched her emeralds almost desperately for a moment, before he tugged her closer.

_Why aren't you pulling away from him?_

Lily honestly didn't know. All she did know was that James was standing barely an inch away from her and was looking at her so intensely it felt as though he was burning her skin, but she couldn't make herself look away from his eyes.

His face inched closer. Lily didn't move. Her eyes fluttered shut.

She felt James's lips softly brush her forehead…her nose…underneath her left eye…her jaw…

Lily heard a pop, and slowly opened her eyes to find herself alone in the middle of a street. Feeling strangely hollow, she scrubbed her hands over her face, the sunlight glinting off the rubies and diamond. She walked the rest of the way to the small house she rented with Andrew, and walked through the front door. As he came towards her and kissed her on the cheek, Lily couldn't help but wonder why she felt so unsatisfied with everything in her life that only a few hours ago delighted her.

James arrived at his flat that he shared with the Marauders and walked slowly over to the cabinet where they kept the Firewhiskey. He poured himself a glass and downed it almost completely in one gulp. Sighing, he braced his arms against the counter and dropped his head.

He couldn't help but wonder if he had made the right choice in not kissing Lily. It would have been his only chance to ever get that close to her – she hadn't done anything to resist. But his self-control was so close to snapping just being that close to her. Had he actually kissed her, he would never have let her go.

"Prongs?" He could hear the three Marauders coming inside noisily, and straightened up. Sirius appeared in the kitchen.

"Hey mate…you okay?" he asked, eyeing the bottle of Firewhiskey and almost empty glass next to James.

"Fine," he muttered, before walking to his room and flopping onto his bed, wondering when he'd ever felt less fine.

But, he thought as he rolled to his back, she hadn't pushed him away. She was going to kiss him. That was enough for him, for now.

He fell asleep, and dreamt of emeralds.

Lily fell asleep with Andrew's arm around her waist, and dreamt of sapphires.

* * *

**Shitty ending, I know. But that's what it was when I originally wrote it, and I couldn't figure out a better way to end it, so there it is. Review!**

**And extra note - if you want me to continue it and make it a two-shot, please put ideas for the second part in reviews, because I wrote this so long ago I don't really remember what I had planned...REVIEW! THANKS!  
**


	2. Part Two

**Happy news at the bottom! See you there :)  
**

* * *

In the three months since her encounter with Po-_James_, Lily had found herself growing further and further away from Andrew. Their relationship, which used to make her so happy, now only made her wonder what else she was missing – she was bored with everything in her life except her job. But Lily didn't want to leave him because she was _bored_. She would grow out of it – she hoped – and their relationship would go back to how it had been.

Except it didn't. It couldn't.

Not when Lily came home one day and found Andrew in bed with an old school friend of his. He tried to defend himself, saying it was a one-time thing, but Lily wasn't focused on that. She was wondering why she didn't feel hurt, wasn't angry or betrayed or anything else you should feel when someone cheated on you. Instead she was…relieved.

Without letting him finish explaining, she slipped off her engagement ring and Disapparated. The rubies and diamond fell to the floor with a dull _clink_.

Lily knew where the Marauders lived – she had visited Remus once before, when it had been just his flat and not all of the Marauders'. She could only raise her hand and knock, praying James was there. When she heard footsteps, she shoved her hands in her pockets.

Sirius Black was expecting a few different people to be on the other side of the door – Peter, having forgotten his key again, James's mum, Peter's mum, that hot chick down the hall – but not Lily Evans. Never Lily Evans.

He was so shocked he barely even noticed when she brushed past him into the living room.

"Is James here?" she asked abruptly, spinning around to face him. He could only nod, and then leave to get him, leaving Lily standing awkwardly in the living room.

It occurred to her that she should have maybe poked around a bit before James arrived, but by the time this thought made its appearance, footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. Lily was greeted by the sight of not one, not two, but three Marauders standing in the doorway, all looking at her interestedly, except James, who was looking at her nervously and shifting from foot to foot.

Lily glared at the other two until they got the hint and Disapparated. James stepped slowly into the living room, looking anxious. He opened his mouth to speak, and Lily cut him off.

"I hate you."

It would be hard to describe the agonized look that crossed James's face. Or the ripping feeling that was taking place in his chest, making him feel like a gaping hole had just been torn through it.

"You ruined everything. And I hate you."

James was having trouble focusing – everything seemed to be blurring slowly, until it all just became a whorl of color. It took him a moment to realize there were tears in his eyes.

Lily saw his eyes flood, and forced herself to ignore it. She needed to get this out.

"I was perfectly content with my life, my fiancé, everything that I had going on. Then I have lunch with you once, _once_, and everything is fucked."

"Lily," he croaked out. "I don't know – how did I…?" Lily didn't say anything. James hesitantly took a step forward. "Could you please-"

"Why didn't you kiss me?"

James stared at her blankly, although his mind was reeling.

"Why James? _Why the hell didn't you kiss me?_" Without realizing it, Lily drew her hands out of her pockets and planted them on her hips. James's eyes immediately found her empty left ring finger.

Feeling slightly emboldened, he took another step towards her.

"Because I don't have the self-control to let you go once I have you." James flinched in advance, fully expecting Lily to go into a tirade about him 'having her' and how she wasn't a piece of property. But it didn't come. Instead, he looked up from staring at the ground to see that her emerald eyes were filled with tears. They began to roll down her cheeks, sparkling like diamonds.

"Hey, hey ,hey," he said soothingly. He tried taking another step forward but she sent him a look that stopped all movement. Her words – _I hate you_ – echoed in his head again.

"I don't even know how I feel about _anything_ anymore," she said in a frustrated voice, swiping at her face angrily. "Andrew, you, my whole life. _Any_ of it. You know," she added, looking up at him, "I meant to come find you a few days after we had lunch and talk about possibly becoming friends. I know you probably won't believe me, but I've always felt kind of bad about how I treated you at Hogwarts, rejecting you so harshly, never even giving you a chance." She laughed bitterly, flinging a few more diamonds off her face.

"Andrew cheated on me," she continued blandly, turning away from him and walking to the living room window. James felt a surge of pure fury and hatred. Of all the people who deserved to be cheated on, Lily was definitely not one of them. She was someone who should be worshipped, protected, cherished, told every day how beautiful she was. "I caught him. But it was so strange – I didn't feel anything. No hurt, no anger…just…_relief_."

Lily turned back to face him and strode over to him until there was barely an inch between them. James inhaled sharply.

Her emeralds searched his face almost desperately.

"Kiss me."

His mouth dropped open in shock. Of all the things…

"James…please. Kiss me." Her voice softened into almost a pleading tone. James obliged - what else was he supposed to do?

Kissing Lily Evans…it was something he would never forget, even if this was the only time it happened, even if he ended up married to someone completely different and never saw Lily again. This would be the single most amazing moment of his entire life.

His hands settled on her hips, tugging her closer to him. One of her hands trailed up his bicep and the other tangled in his hair. James moaned softly against her mouth and she smiled before kissing him even harder than before.

"I knew it," she breathed as they slowly pulled apart. James, still in shock and heaven, couldn't speak and simply shook his head. Lily smiled at him, the first real smile she'd ever given him and it made his heart race.

"I like you," she said simply. "You're why I felt so discontented with my life and my relationship with Andrew. I have feelings for you, and they aren't going to go away anytime soon. And I don't know that I want them to."

For the second time that afternoon, his jaw dropped. "R-really?" Laughing softly, Lily nodded.

"This _is_ what you want…right?" she asked hesitantly. "I mean, it's been awhile, and I understand if you have someone else or if you don't have feelings for me anymore."

James couldn't help it – he laughed. Ignoring Lily's affronted look, he took her hand – the one blissfully free of an engagement ring – and pulled her over to the couch.

"Lily, the day I stop having any kind of feelings for you is the day that pigs fly in front of Muggles. This is what I've wanted since I was eleven!"

Lily began to laugh too, more out of hysterical joy than anything else.

Sirius and Remus Apparated back into their flat thirty minutes later to find Lily and James laying on the couch watching something on the television, laughing their asses off. The two of them just laughed harder at the looks on Remus and Sirius's faces. It really was priceless.

James looked down at Lily and her sparkling emeralds and felt a warmth spread through him. She was just so beautiful and amazing and he was never going to get over the fact that she wanted to be with him. And he knew without a doubt that at some point in the not too distant future, he was going to put a sapphire on her finger.

* * *

**So, the happy news - I found a flash drive for super cheap, and so now any stories I type I can still post! But again, I'm not posting anything from the stories from the poll. All that I will probably put up will be various one- and two-shots.**

**REVIEW! PLEASE! PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP!  
**


End file.
